Corpse Party: Lost Child
by suyuku
Summary: An original story involving Corpse Party, with original characters and cameo's of others. Plot twists and so on, this is still a fan-fiction, but I guess what you would call a fan-fiction with an original idea. If you get the time, check it out, you might like it, and if you could give me feed back on what you think that would be awesome!
1. Prologue

Prologue

The two girl's ran as fast as they could, holding each other's hands as they ran through the blackened corroding broken down halls of the elementary school.

"Where can we go!?" the one with bleached blond hair demanded as they stopped to catch her breath. "They are still after us!"

The one with brown hair that went slightly past her shoulder's panted for breath. "I'm not sure…" her blue eyes caught on to an open door, above it, it said the infirmary. "Here! Let's try this room and lock the door!"

"Okay!" the two ran in and closed the door before locking it.

The one with brown hair fell to her knee's as she panted for breath. "Okay… I think… we'll be safe here…" she turned to the bleach blond. "Are you okay Nanako-san…?"

Nanako let out a shriek of rage. "How the hell do you think I feel!? We are being chased by those freaky little dead kids with scissors! I'm tariffed! "

The girl with the brown hair quickly covered Nanako's mouth with her hand before placing her index finger to her lips. "Shh!" they both eyed the door and listened.

The sound of giggling could be heard as the sound of small feet pitter pattered like exited mice running across the hall. They stopped near the door, whispering incoherent words to each other before continuing.

The girl let out a deep sigh as she lowered her hand from Nanako's face. "They're gone…" she stood up and headed over to one of the beds, which looked surprisingly clean considering how the rest of this place looked. "We should stay here for a little bit… just in case."

"Where's that kid and your friend?"

"They ran off in another direction. So I don't know where they are, but I know Satomi will be okay Teiyo-nii is with her."

Nanako just looked at her for a long moment before turning away and muttering. "It's your entire fault… if I never got involved in doing that stupid charm…"

"No one asked you to do it." She cut her off tilting her head back to the ceiling. "You should probably be saying if Kazumi-san didn't bring the charm or offer to…"

"You leave Kazumi-kun out of this!" Nana snapped. "You don't know anything! You're just some girl who ended up being there when that occult freak with the glasses suggested it when he…" Nanako trailed off when not getting any kind of response. "…sorry…"

"Why? It's the truth, but to be honest I don't know what drew me too it. But then it's probably because I wanted…" she shook her head. "No, never mind." She laid down on the bed and placed an arm over her eyes. _The Sachiko Ever After charm… just what was it really… could that really have brought all of us here_


	2. Chapter 1 Cursed Charm of Happiness

Chapter One: Cursed Charm of Happiness

Ayame Noriko walked along the park's gravel path as she held her little sister, Alice's, hand. They continued to walk until they heard someone calling out.

"Ayame!"

Ayame turned to the sound of her friend Satomi Haruki and waved. "Satomi, good morning, you look tiered."

"I… slept… through my alarm… clock." She gasped for breath as she placed her hands on her knees. When she caught her breath she gave a slight salute as she winked at her long-time friend. "But it's allll-right now! I'm awake and fully charged!"

Ayame laughed before the sleeve of her uniform blouse was tugged on by her younger sister. "Hmmm?"

"Onee-san, you're not taking Alice home today are you?"

Ayame tilted her head to motion her friend to start walking as they continued down the path before speaking to her younger sister. "No not today, Mama will be picking you up instead of me, I have to help my class clean up after the festival that we had."

"You remember the festival don't you Alice-chan?" Satomi added in. "You looked so cute in that kimono you're mother had you wear." She then placed her hand to her mouth and gave a low laugh. "Not to mention you're sister looked cute in that maid outfit; didn't your parents take pictures?"

"Satomi!" Ayame snapped. "You're the one who made me wear that in the first place!"

"We needed more booth babes, and you are one, not to mention you're boobs are big."

"Satomi…" she let out a breath. "Not in front of Alice, she's only a grade schooler still; she doesn't know much of what you're talking about."

The two were both quite before Alice looked to Satomi and asked. "Will I get boobs like Onee-san?"

"You know you just might!" Satomi laughed.

"You both, stop it already, Alice, no more talking about those kinds of things, you're too young…"

The three walked talking about certain things involving school work as well as what things would be happening in Alice's school.

"Well here we are." Ayame said before smiling down at her sister. "You work hard in class today okay."

Alice quite for a moment.

"Alice? Something wrong?"

She gave her sister a look of concern. "You're going to be careful right? At school?"

Ayame didn't know why she was saying this, it wasn't like this was the first time there mother picked Alice up. She smiled and pulled her little sister into a hug. "I'll be fine, you know that you're big sister will always be okay." She pulled away and raised her left hand extending her pinky finger. "I promise you that no matter what I'll always come home, okay?"

Alice was hesitant with raising her hand, but slowly she placed her pinky finger over Ayame's. "Okay…"

"Good." She gave her little sister one last hug before pulling away. "Now get going, I bet some of your friends are wondering why you aren't in class yet."

Again Alice hesitated but then turned and ran quickly to the front entrance of her school, with one last wave she went inside.

"Come on, we need to head to our school now." Ayame said before walking down the road. Satomi quickly joined her side as she pushed one of her braids behind her shoulder.

"Alice-chan has been really close to you recently hasn't she?"

"Yeah, I'm not really sure what brought it on, but Mom and Dad don't seem to mind, they actually kind of welcome it."

Satomi leaned forward with her hands behind her back as her brown eyes creased into a frown one of her two short braids falling over her shoulder again. "Do you not like it Ayame?"

She shook her head slowly sending her slightly past shoulder length brown hair about. "It's not that I have a problem with it, it just seems… sudden to me."

Satomi then stood tall and placed her right index finger to her chin while glancing towards the blue sky. "You know, Alice looks really cute in that white dress with the frills and lace she looks a lot like a doll, if she had brown hair I could easily mistake her for you when you were that age. Speaking of which isn't that the same dress that you wore back when you were that age?"

"Hmmm? Oh you mean from ten years ago? Yeah that's the same dress, Mom was going through some of the old cloths that we boxed away into the basement and she came across that dress, when Alice saw it she really wanted to wear it…." Ayame trailed off her feet slowly coming to a stop. "…Now that I think about it… Alice started to cling to me more when we found that dress."

"Do you think it holds some kind of significant reason to how she's acting? Like was there anything in the box besides the dress?"

Ayame went quite, not saying anything for a long moment.

"Ayame…?" Satomi placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "What is it?"

"It was _his _cloths… Nii-san's…"

Her eyes went wide. "Nii… oh Ayame I'm sorry… are you gonna be okay?"

"I don't know…" she admitted. "You think after eleven years we'd be okay with it, seeing his cloths, neither Mom nor Dad can bear to throw them away… even after what happened." She let out a sad sigh followed by a pain filled smile. "I can't blame them for it really… all of his things are now in the attic of our home since Alice was born… you'd think I'd get over it by now…"

"Ayame…" Satomi pulled her childhood friend into a tight hug, Satomi was just slightly shorter then Ayame, the top of her head resting against Ayame's cheek. "You have me here, if you want we can just ditch school today." She pulled back and grasped both of her friend's hands in her's. "Or do you still want to go?"

"I… I can go, but thanks, for worrying about me like that. It means a lot to me that you're still standing there when I need you."

Satomi let out a happy go lucky laugh. "No problem-o! It's the job of the childhood friend to be there to pick up the pieces when no one else is there!" she tugged Ayame by the hand and headed towards the direction of their school. "Now come on let's go."

The two headed to their school Osamukai Academy, Ayame continued to walk along side of Satomi holding her hand as they went; she needed that emotional support right now, and seeing how things went on at the school just a few days ago.

The school uniforms for the girls had plated red uniform skirts with a black lines crisscrossing through, they had ether the choice of having a tanned sweater vest, sweater, or a jacket in black to go over the white blouse and tie. Satomi had on a short sleeved blouse and a sweater tied around her waist with thigh high white socks, while Ayame had on the white blouse, and black jacket with it left undone and calf high black socks.

"You feeling any better now?" Satomi asked as they reached the gates.

"Yeah I'm…" but she was cut off by another female student speaking in a loud mocking tone.

"Oh yuck, look they're doing it again!"

Ayame glanced over to the bike rack and saw Nanako Kyou and her friend Akane Makoto snickering to themselves. They both had a matching style of uniform, T-shirt white blouse, and a tanned sweater vest with thigh high black socks.

"Akane, you shouldn't think such things, even if it does look _disgusting_…" Nanako mocked as she flipped her bleached blond hair over her shoulder.

Satomi was about to say something back to those girl's when another student lightly whacked Nanako on the back of her head.

"Ouch!" she turned with an angry expression on her face to the student that hit her. "What the hell was that for you…! Kazumi-kun"

Kazumi Takashi looked at her sternly, not pleased at all for what she had said. "Nanako, you shouldn't say such things about people you know nothing about. It's rude."

Her face went red from embarrassment before she and Akane ran off into the school.

"Geez those two…" he said before walking over to Ayame and Satomi. "Morning Noriko-san, Haruki-san, how are you both?"

"Fine now thanks." Ayame said with a slight smile. "But you didn't need to do that, Kyou-san is always like this towards me, I can't figure out why she hates me…"

"Well whatever the reason is I'll talk to her about it later, but I'll see you both later on in class, seeya!"

When Kazumi left Satomi began to chuckle darkly. "I know the reason, I know the reason all too well~~!"

"Huh?"

Satomi instantly stood behind Ayame and groped her breasts. "It's because of these! She's jealous of your awesome boobs! There waaaay bigger than her's can ever get, she is an A-cup after all~~!"

Ayame broke free of her friend's hold and smacked her in the back of the head. "Quit it Satomi! Just because I have large breasts does not give you permission to grope them like that! Besides I don't want them to get any bigger than they already are!"

"But they're so soft~!" she whined then recalled something. "You know my Mom is probably just as big as yours now, maybe even bigger!"

"Satomi!" she then quickly changed subjects. "Speaking of which isn't your mother near the end of her pregnancy?"

"Yup! Yup! Yup! And her belly is soooo big now, she's like an elephant!"

_Is that even a compliment…? _Ayame thought with a bit of a laugh. "I think I may have asked this already but is it going to be a boy or a girl?"

"Well my parents thought that it would be good to not know until the baby is born, you know, kind of like a surprise birthday party."

"Uh… Yeah I suppose it can be, I guess. Also doesn't Mao-san give you some good advice from his mother?"

"You mean Hayato-kun? Yeah he's a lot of help, kind of surprising since people seem to be scared of him."

"I think the students are scared of him because they think his some kind of delinquent…" Ayame said. "…anyway let's go to class, it'll be starting soon."

The day seemed to go on forever; Ayame didn't really feel like doing much, even if it was just merely cleanup, so she headed to the roof, she soon caught a whiff of Tabaco. "You know smoking up on the roof isn't allowed." She turned to look at the near far end of the roof. "Mao-san…"

Hayato Mao sat up against the metal railing of the school roof with a cigarette in his right hand as he let out a breath, a puff of smoke followed with. Dressed in the school uniform his jacket left hanging open and his tie was loosened and the top two buttons of his white shirt were left undone, the "You're the second person to say that…" he said as Ayame walked over to him. "Where's Haruki-san? She's normally with you."

Ayame was about to tell him when someone else did for her.

"Haruki-san is helping Sensei with some other matters, it makes sense that you would come up here to be safe from those three girls, Nanako Kyou, Akane Makoto, and Wanaka Saki… those three always seem to have it out for you, I wonder why…"

She turned to look at the one who spoke, there Minami Noboru, the class representative had her elbows resting on the metal railing as she faced the now setting sun as her short dark hair flowed lightly in the wind, in light like this it almost looked dark purple. "Isn't the sunset lovely?"

" Minami…" Hayato spoke in an agitated voice before turning to look at her. "Why do you always say that? You can't even see."

Minami turned her eyes held a glazed cloudy look as she pushed some strands of her hair behind her ear. "So?" she said with a soft smile. "Maybe I was asking you that to tell me how nice it looks."

"It's always the same." He said before running a hand through his black hair and stomping out the cigarette with his foot. "I'm heading in, both of you guys should hurry too, one of the students is having their final day in our class right? We should at least say goodbye before she leaves."

When Hayato left Ayame looked to Minami, who now seemed to still be looking at the sky, her uniform was the long sleeved white blouse and the long sleeved tanned sweater over top.

"It's like fire." Ayame said, calling to the rep's attention. "You said before that you wanted to know what the sky was like, it's like fire… though… that probably isn't a good description is it…?"

Minami chuckled slightly. "No, that's a grate description, thank you Ayame-chan… that means a lot to me. How have you been today? You seem rather down on yourself, did those girls do something again?"

"No." Ayame said. "It's nothing like that; just…" she shook her head. "No never mind, come on, we should probably get back to the classroom."

As the two reached their classroom2-A, they started to notice sounds coming from there classroom opening the door Ayame could see a few of the remaining students.

All were whispering to each other. "What's going on?"

"Oh hey Noriko-san! Noboru-san!" Ichiro Ren, a classmate of theirs that was also very much into the occult and horror things, called over with a strange looking paper charm in his hand. "You two are just in time!"

"In time?" they said at the same time.

Satomi came over then and grasped Ayame's hand with both of her's and smiled. "Come on Ayame!" and then pulled her over to the group of remaining students.

"A ritual!" he said with a smile before holding up the hand of one of their classmates Hotaru Isamu, a slight small girl with dark brown hair in two small high up pigtails with two pink ribbons in her hair and a large slightly oversized sweater and black school jacket over top.

"Uh… um…" Hotaru tried to speak up as a slight blush came to her face. "I well… I was wondering if you and the class rep would want to do The Sachiko Ever After charm…?"

Ayame frowned. "The what charm…?"

"It's a charm that when done right it'll let us all stay together!" Hotaru then said with a beaming smile looking so happy in a sudden manor as if she was forcing it.

Ayame, as well as the rest of the class knew that Hotaru and her father and older sister had to move to another school, because of a job transfer that the father had been given and couldn't get out of no matter how hard he tried.

"I don't see why the freak has to join…" Akane said in a snide tone.

Wanaka Saki, another friend of Nanako's said loudly as she folded her arms over her large chest. "Yeah… she bugs me for some reason…"

"And besides," Akane continued. "It's her own fault for her brother's death…"

Ayame went pale, the color disappearing completely from her skin. Satomi then quickly grabbed hold of her friend while Minami helped steady her.

"Now that has gone way too far." Minami interjected. "And Makoto! How dare you say such a thing, Ayame-chan has gone through enough, now stop it!"

"What are you my Mommy?" she mocked.

"Akane, that's enough…" Nanako said softly. "Do that when no one else is around…"

"I heard that!" Minami stated making the two girl's jump.

"Fine!" Akane said in a prolonged away then muttered. "Blind bitch…"

The classroom doors opened up and in came Hayato, Kazumi, and there homeroom teacher Itachi Chinatsu. "Hey now!" said their teacher. "Sorry that took so long, we had an issue with one of the banners and it wouldn't come down."

"Sensei, I think you mean that it came down, on top of you…" Hayato said in response as he placed his hands in his pants pockets.

He gave a nervous laugh.

The student then continued. "…And then you called for help because you couldn't seem to get it off you…"

Itachi continued to laugh.

Kasumi came over to Ayame with a concerned look on his face. "Hey are you okay, you look… really pale, are you sick?"

"No…" Ayame said as she turned away from him. "I'm fine, I'm just tired…"

"Oh… okay." He looked discouraged but still seemed worried, he reached out to her shoulder only to be suddenly grabbed by Nanako and pulled over to where she stood with her friends. "Come on Kasumi-kun! Let's do this charm that Ichiro brought for Hotaru-san, if we do this then we can always see each other!"

"Really?" he looked to Ayame who was talking quietly to Minami and Satomi.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Satomi asked.

"Yeah, you really don't seem alright." Minami agreed. "What those girl's said… about your brother…"

"I'll be fine…" Ayame said again. "Just give me a bit of time…"

"Ayame!" Kasumi called to her, when she turned to look at him with confusion in her blue eyes he asked. "Do you want to do this charm with everyone? I'm sure Isamu-san would be really happy if you did." He looked to Hotaru. "Isn't that right?"

"Mmm-hmm! Yeah, I want all the people I really know to do this charm with me, that includes you Ayame, I always thought you had really pretty blue eyes!"

Ayame went red, the color returning tenfold. "Uh…! Th-thank's… I think…"

"So come on." Ichiro said. "Let's all do this charm, and then we can go home. That goes for you too Sensei."

"Wha… huh? Me?"

"Yes! I wouldn't feel right if the students did this and you weren't involved, you are our homeroom teacher after all."

Itachi thought about it for a long moment. "…Alright, sure I'll get involved in this charm."

"Okay everyone form a cercal."

"_No! Ayame don't!" _a youthful voice shouted out making her stop in her tracks and turn around to look at the other end of the room, but no one was there. _What the…? Was I just hearing… no… no I couldn't have, I really must be tired… _Ayame joined the cercal when Ichiro told them the rules.

"Alright… the rules are pretty simple. Each individual must repeat the phrase "Sachiko, we beg of you" one time for each participant, so that's one… two… …eleven times. Then after chanting, everyone grabs hold of the doll and pulls it apart, leaving each person with a scrap of the doll. We all hold on to that piece and keep it close to us no matter what. Understand?

"Seems simple enough." Their teacher said.

"What happens if it fails?" Wanaka asked. "Will we be cursed or something?"

"No, no nothing like that, it just means we won't be able to see each other like we want too."

"Whaaa!" Hotaru cried out in a small voice. "I don't want that to happen!"

"Ha-ha! Then we better not fail it!" Satomi laughed with encouragement with her hands on her hips before winking at her friend. "Right? Ayame-chan~?"

"Yeah…" but a nagging voice in the back of her head told that this wasn't a good idea, was it because of that voice she heard?

"Alright let's get started!" Ichiro said.

All of them repeated "Sachiko, we beg of you".

"And now pull!" they all tore the paper doll and held the scrap that they had, Ayame placed her's in her student ID tag, as well as Satomi and Minami. "Now that it is done we all just have to hold on to our piece, don't lose it now."

Itachi headed over to the teacher's podium and clapped his hands. "Okay you lot! I think it's safe to say that today must finally come to an end so let's all pack up our things and…"

But he didn't get to finish, a large rumbling sound could be heard before the whole classroom began to shake.

All of the student's screamed.

"Wha!?" Akane freaked.

"An earthquake!?" Nanako panicked.

"Minami-san!" Hayato called out and pulled her to him before a light fixture fell down and hit her on the head.

"Everyone quickly get underneath you're desks until it passes!" there teacher demanded. "Hurry now!"

"Ayame!" Satomi cried out.

"I'm okay!" she called back before looking to her desk only to find that it wasn't there, instead there was a large hole, and it began to eat up the floor at an incredible rate. Ayame was about to try to move away from the closing in hole when she suddenly felt as if hands were pressed to her shoulder blades, shoving her forwards. "Wha…" _No…! _"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" she screamed as she fell downwards.

"AYAME!" Satomi screamed and grabbed hold of her friend's arm to stop her from falling.

"Satomi!"

"Don't worry…" Satomi managed. "I've got you… I won't let you fall down there…" but soon that hole grew so large that even Satomi fell along side of Ayame, not long after did she hear the terrified screams of the other students before everything became cold, and dark, in what seemed to be a never ending abyss.


	3. Chapter 2 Heavenly Host's Welcome

Chapter Two: Heavenly Host's Welcome

Nanko came awake in a dark, dark room; it was almost as if ink were splashed in her eyes making her world a inky pitch black vision of darkness. Ever as her eyes adjusted it was still hard to see anything. "What the hell…?" she said to herself as she sat up, running a hand through her bleach blond hair, wincing when she felt a sudden bump.

"Where am I…? What is this place?" _Kasumi-kun! _She looked left and right, but no matter what all she saw was darkness, she was completely alone in this strange room. _Where is everyone? Kasumi-kun… Akane… Wanaka… where are you guys…?_

Suddenly she saw a strange blue light glowing from her far right, turning she looked to see three young children giggling to themselves, two girl's and one boy, one girl was missing and eye, the other missing the top part of her head, the boy looked as if he had been repeatedly stabbed in the stomach, and they were looking down at someone. She fixated her eyes on the figure lying on the ground and realized who it was.

Ayame Noriko.

And from the looks of things she showed no signs of waking up any time soon ether.

"Ayame!" Satomi called from a far off place. "Ayame!? Where are you? If you can hear me sweetness answer me! Ayame!"

The three children turned to Nanako's direction holding a wide eyed gaze with no emotional feeling attached. In their hands were three large rusty sewing scissors, caked with blood, and it wasn't Ayame's ether…

The boy opened his mouth as if to speak but instead all that could come out was a strange gurgling sound, followed by large amounts of blood to flow out hitting the old cracked and broken wooden floor.

Fear was the first thing that hit her, but then something inside her told Nanako to help her, to help Ayame get away from those creepy little kids. But then if she helped Ayame and they came across Kasumi then he'd obviously would help her and not Nanako, so what if she had natural blue eyes and chestnut brown hair and a large chest. Nanako was so much better than her!

She shoved the thoughts of helping Ayame away as she glared at her sleeping form. _If it wasn't for her then Kasumi would… _"Tsk…"

Standing up Nanako was slowly able to get her bearings of sight and began to walk, but not towards Ayame and the kids, no she walked towards the door.

"Do whatever you want to her…" she said. "That bitch is no friend of mine." And then closed the door leaving a still knocked out Ayame in the hands of those creepy spirits in a pitch black room. Or was she alone?

Out of the shadows another person came from the far back of the room, this person was only a child still, ether twelve of eleven years old with blond hair and blue eyes, the boy looked to the kids, unaffected by their deadly stares as he slowly walked over to the knocked out girl.

Instantly the spirits backed off, vanishing in thin air.

"_noha faar…"_

The boy said nothing as he went down on his knees and brushed the strands of her hair away from her face before cupping her cheek.

"You… never do listen do you…?" he smiled. "Wake up Ayame, your friend is looking for you…"

Ayame's eyes burst open before she instantly sat up, looking completely confused. "What the…? Where is this place?" she looked around seeing nothing but darkness. This room looked strange, nothing like her classroom, where was she?

There were no lights so it was difficult to see, but slowly her eyes adjusted. "This… this isn't my classroom… it looks like a school but… a really old rundown one… just where the hell is this place?"

Standing up she looked around, being careful to not fall through the very large holes in the creaking wooden floor and headed to some of the nearby windows, she tried to open one of them but it was no use, no matter how hard she pulled the window refused to move. It was if it had been sealed shut by some kind of strange force.

"No good… it won't move no matter what I do… damn it…" she looked to the nearest classroom sliding doors. "I should probably leave here and see if I can find anyone from our class… and a way out of here too… that is… where ever _here _is…" she headed to the door and tried, it wouldn't open. On closer inspection the door itself seemed to be more like a model for decoration, it just wasn't going to open. Avoiding the holes in the floor and the tables and chairs she reached the other door, only she encountered the same problem as she had with the first. "What the hell…!?" she said to herself. "Why won't these doors open? Am I going to be trapped inside this room!?" she banged on the door as hard as she could. "Hello?! Is anyone out there in the hallway? If someone is there please! Answer me!"

No answer was given.

"Damn…" _I guess no one really can hear me… _Ayame began to look around the classroom again. "There has to be some other way out of this room… I just haven't found it yet." _I need to stay calm, I can't panic, if Nii-san where here he'd do the exact same thing, find another way out of a predicament… Nii-san… I wish you were here… giving me some kind of guidance… but it's my fault you're gone… _"Whoever wrote that on the chalkboard… must really think I am to blame… even if… it were some cruel joke."

With a deep breathe she looked throughout the classroom and as Ayame did so something about this whole place began to give her chills, she didn't know what it was, but to her, it felt as if she was being watched by many, many eyes. It made her feel unsettled.

She continued until something caught her attention at the front of the classroom, on the far left there seemed to be a large cabinet through the glass she could see books so old and decrepit that they looked like some were about to crumble into dust, others the pages were so yellow she doubted that they could even be opened again.

Looking down at the floor she saw scratch marks in the wood as if it had been moved as if to hide something. Moving to the right side she pushed the object back in its original place and saw that there was a door.

_I knew that another way out would be somewhere! _She thought before noticing something was written on the door, she gasped and moved away from it, what had been written there, was done so in someone's blood. It seemed to drip down the wood slightly, as if it had just been painted there by some sick individual.

"What..?! Is that… is that blood? Oh god…"

On the door it read as followed:

D O N ' . . . ! !

. . . ! ! !

_WHAT?! _"But this is my only way out… I have to go in there… shouldn't I…?" she thought about it for a long moment, but then determined that this truly was the only way out of here, since none of the doors seemed willing to give her any other choice of leaving, this door truly was her only way out.

"I… I can do this!" she said to herself before opening the door and heading into the dark room. It was even darker then the classroom that she was in, and it took her another moment to get used to it. "Maybe… there's a switch for the light in here, it's so dark that I can't see a thing…" she felt on the nearest wall to her left, in the far corner of the room she felt what seemed to be like a switch for a light, turning it on, a bright light came flickering on, causing Ayame to wince from the sudden change of darkness to light. "Finally!" she turned around to see if this room had a possible way to exit and froze.

What lay before her in this other room were the three skeletal remains of what looked to be high school students. There blue uniforms covered in blood, what looked to be two female students, they seemed to be holding each other closely in fear as if afraid of what was to come, the third seemed to be slouching forwards head hung low dried blood drenched his uniform shirt, the walls and floor were all covered in it.

"YAAAH!" Ayame screamed before nearly falling to the floor. "What… what _is _all this…? Are… are those _real _bodies over there…?! Oh my god!" even in her state of panic she noticed something being held by the lone corpse. Swallowing the lump in her dry throat Ayame inched over to the body, in its skeletal hand lay a key. Taking the key it read: _Infirmary_.

She then glanced to the name of the student.

Makuto Daisuke Misato Municipal Brotherhood High class 2-4, he seemed to have been dealt with major hemorrhaging caused by some sharp implement of some kind.

"_A…ki…ra…" _a disembodied voice echoed in and around the room, for a moment Ayame thought she was hearing things. She then glanced to the two female bodies and saw their nametags. Yuki Mochida Misato Municipal Brotherhood High class 2-4 and Haruko Mochida Misato Municipal Brotherhood High class 2-6, it seemed that they were both sisters in the same school and that the one named Haruko tried to protect her sister from an unknown assailant, yet both died by the same object as the first.

"_A…ki…ra…"_

"_Sis…ter… n… no… run… …leave… me…"_

Ayame stood when she heard more disembodied voices, it almost sounded like it was coming from the bodies themselves. But that was impossible the dead couldn't talk!

Still… other than seeing such a horrible sight like this, this place made her feel concerned.

Quickly taking the key in hand Ayame left the room through another door near the other end of the room, once outside in the hallway she fell to her hands and knees and let out a deep gasping breath.

"Ugh… that was horrible… those poor students… even though I never met them before I can't help be feel sorry for them to be trapped in such a place dyeing like that… … … …Nii-san…" she looked to the key in her hand. "I should probably go to the infirmary… but I need to fine Satomi and Minami too… I hope they're okay… wherever this place is…"

Getting up she started to wander through the halls, she stopped when she saw that there was a huge hole in the floor hallway. "Hmm… you know… I could probably jump across that. It doesn't look that far, and if I get a good run I can do a really far long jump."

Checking to make sure that the gap wasn't that far, Ayame did a small jog backwards and then did a full on run and leapt across the hole landing on the other side. "Yes!" she said to herself. "I totally nailed that one! If Satomi was here she'd probably make some kind or remark about being able to see my panties and what color they were." She paused, and her smile fell. "Funny… I never thought I'd actually miss something like that out of all things…"

Getting up she continued her walk, stopping every so often at the sight of another dead body from some other school that she didn't know of, and cringing. She couldn't stand the sight of such things, the only thing Ayame felt grateful for was that they were all in skeletal form; if she saw any bodies with any kind of hinting flesh on their bones she'd have a sudden relapse of her past and faint dead away.

Even after ten years it still happened to her, thankfully Satomi was always with her, to catch her when Ayame would faint. For so many years to pass and to still deal with such a trauma, Ayame wondered if she would ever get over it.

She continued onward thankful that she didn't see any of her school uniform on the bodies of the few remaining dead as she walked. Some of the halls were cut off due to there being large holes in the floor and that they were too great for her to jump across. So she would have to cut through a classroom.

It was while walking through one of the classrooms did she spot what looked to be notice stapled to the wall.

_-Heavenly Host Elementary- Notice to all faculty and Students- _

Ayame took a step back; did she read that right…?

She went back and read the remaining part of the message.

_Due to the recent kidnappings, caution is highly recommended during all daily activities. In each instance, the victim was taken quickly and unexpectedly, so please remain alert and aware at all times. –Principal Takamine Yanahihori._

"I heard about this… a few years ago… this school it was demolished and in its place a school called… Kisaragi Academy was built over it I think… yeah, Mom didn't want me to go there; she told me about the supposed happenings and thought it would be a bad omen for me or even Alice to attend that school. I took her word for it, but never really thought about it. Perhaps this is what she meant…?"

As she left that classroom and wandered down the hallway, the realization of what she had just read and her surroundings slowly came to her.

_I can't believe it… _she thought to herself. _This is really Heavenly Host Elementary… but… how can that be…? _Her train of thought was cut short when she saw what looked to be a little girl in a red dress walking into one of the classrooms. "Huh…? Was that a kid I just saw?" she walked over to the open door of a classroom that the kid went into. "What's a kid doing in a place like this? It's no good for someone so young to see something so violent… I should know better than anyone…"

Going into the classroom she saw small desks and chairs for children, but not the girl in the red dress. "That's strange where did she go…?" she walked further into the room. "I could have sworn that I saw her go in here." She was about to head further into the classroom when she stopped seeing a very large gap cutting across the room; it was so large that even Ayame knew that there would be no chance in hell of her making it across. "The girl is not here… but I see something shining at the other end of the room, I should probably head there."

She went out of the classroom and quickly went to the other side only to see that whatever was shining was now at the other end of the room.

"What the…? It moved… maybe if I had someone with me we could get… whatever that thing is…" leaving the classroom once more she glanced to the key that she still had with her. "The infirmary… that's probably my best bet right now."

Leaving the classroom she stopped and paused. _But that was strange, where did the kid go? I know I saw someone go into that classroom; could my mind just be playing tricks on me?_

Continuing onward Ayame tried to see if she could find the infirmary but to no prevail, it must not have been on this floor, there was a set of stairs that led down, so she took those knowing that there was nowhere else to go but downwards.

She stopped when she saw more remains of another student.

"Just how many bodies are in this place…? Ugh… I can't take stuff like this… not at all… I just hope that I can go home soon with Satomi and the others…"

"_You… there…"_

Ayame froze and looked back to the corpse of a male high school student. Did she just here it talk?

A blue flame then revealed itself to her, causing Ayame to yelp in shock and move backwards. "Wha…? Who are you?"

"_I… was brought here against my will… just like you… confined in this eternal damnation…"_

Ayame frowned. "You mean… confined as in no way out…?"

"_Sadly yes… there is no exit. This school exists in a reality all on its own, cut off from the world that you or I used to know."_

"Why is this happening?" Ayame asked. "Why have I been brought here?"

The spirit paused for a moment. _"_They _brought you here, they're constantly bringing new victims into this school… all the time… never stopping, sinless innocents one after another. This is a cursed, multidimensional nexus… multiple planes of existence all piled on top of one another… created by a powerful, vengeful spirits. "Closed Space" or perhaps "Closed Spaces"… you… and we as well… are all the unlucky victims of this curse."_

"Closed… …spaces…?"

"_Yes, you… and from what I can tell, two other people exist in this dimensional space… but I am also sensing some others… about eight more people that came around the same time as you did."_

"Really!?" Ayame gasped. "So does that mean I can find my other classmates?" _I hope they're okay… I really do…_

"_They are definitely within this school… but… you won't be able to meet them…"_

"What?" her happiness soon turned to dread. "What do you mean? You just said that they were in this school."

"_I did… but besides you… and the two others… there is no one else here that is of living origin… the others are in the many different spaces of the nexus compared to the one that you occupy. If you wish to see them, you must find other means of meeting them through the other spaces, or bring them to the space that you are in. but even then escape is impossible, but you'll at least be able to die together…"_

Ayame couldn't say anything, too shocked by the spirits words she fell to her knees, staring at the wooden ground with wide blue eyes. Looking to the ghost she asked. "You… you said that I and the others were brought here by vengeful spirits… do you know who they are? And you said that there were at least two other people here besides me, could they be from my school by chance…?"

"_Possibly… one in particular seems determined to find you…"_

_That must be Satomi! Oh my god she's here with me!_

"_But the other… seems to want to do nothing but harm you… I suggest that when you see that person, avoid that one. That person may just be you're downfall."_

"What do you mean…?"

"_Do whatever you can… to find a way out of here." _The spirit said changing subjects. _"Don't end up… …like us… I wish of you… the best of luck…" _

The spirit then vanished, leaving her alone with skeletal remains.

Letting out a few deep shaky breaths Ayame slowly stood up, the information that she had just been told was a lot, confusing, but a lot, she did understand most of it, but what bothered her was this person that wanted to do harm. In a place like this, it could be anyone or anything… the only people that Ayame could truly trust was her friends; maybe she could leave some kind of message on a wall or on a desk, that way her friends and other classmates would know how to find her.

"Thank you." She said to the spirits remains. "For telling me all of that, and I wish, that if this were to truly end… that you and the many other spirits in this place were finally able to have some sort of peace." After saying that Ayame continued her way down the stairs.

"_Thank… you… thank you so much…"_

Walking down the rest of the way she saw what looked to be a faint blue glow.

Near the end of one of the halls she paused when she saw another glowing blue spirit, and it gave her a word of warning. _"If you should die here… you'll experience the pain you felt at the moment of your death for all eternity. Heaven's completely cut off, no paradise, no nirvana. Just eternal pain and misery…"_ the spirit let out a pain filled moan. _"Ghaaa… why… did I have to die like that out of all things…? Uhhhh… ….ughaaaa… those kids why did those kids do this to me…? my body… nothing left… shig-nii…"_ and then vanished.

To feel the pain of death for all eternity, that was something Ayame did not want to go through she turned the corner and gasped, freezing in place she saw what looked to be a pummelled mass of gore, blood and flesh smashed all up against the walls as if whoever hit this wall was going at inhuman speed. It was like whatever threw the person to this wall really wanted them to die.

Ayame turned away as she felt the sudden urge to vomit, she gagged, trying to keep it all down, throwing up wasn't going to help her at all in this situation no matter how much she wanted too. In the corner where she stood Ayame saw a student name tag. It read as followed.

Mayu Suzumoto class 2-9 Kisaragi Academy.

She continued to shake; she didn't know if she could continue after seeing _that _on the wall it reminded her too much of her past, too much of what she had gone through.

_Nii-san… Nii-san… I wish you were here… here to keep me from freaking out like this… it's been so long I should be over it by now…! So why can't I…?_

"_Ayame…"_

"Huh?" she turned too looked down the hall avoiding the splatter along the wall. "Did… did someone call me?"

"_Ayame…" _the voice came again. _"You'll be okay… you'll be fine, have more confidence in yourself you can do it…"_

Ayame didn't say anything but forced herself to continue down the hallway ignoring what she saw behind her. "That's…!" she moved faster to the door. "That's the infirmary!"

She rushed over to the door and used the key that she had found on the door; it unlocked and opened before going inside.

"Thank god…" she said with a deep breath then paused. "…But… now what do I do…?" she walked further into the room, and suddenly felt very strange, like something was watching her, she saw what looked to be a type a diary, she thought it'd be best to leave it alone, but it seemed to be like a model that was glued to the table.

"I'm here but… I really don't have a clue as to where to go."

The infirmary door suddenly opened up and a student came rushing in. "Ayame!"

She turned and saw Satomi looking totally shocked but filled with untold relief. "Satomi!" Satomi ran to her so fast and pulled her into a very tight hug.

"Thank god! Thank god! Thank god!" she started to cry. "Ayameeee~!" she hugged her tighter. "I'm so glad you're okay Ayame… When I woke up I didn't see you at all… and there were all these bodies… I thought for a second you might be dead… or worse you'd be all by yourself having to deal with all of this stuff."

"But I'm not a lone now." Ayame said softly as she hugged her friend back. "You found me, and I'm okay… a bit shaken but okay…"

Satomi pulled away a bit, only to place both of her hands on Ayame's face, her eyes filled with concern. "You look really pale… are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm sure it'll take some time but, I think I'll get over my whole issue over fainting from seeing gore… but that might not be a good thing."

Her friend was quite for a long moment. "Well, if you ever do faint, know with pride that I'll always be there to catch you. Besides though you may not look like it, you're extremely light."

"Didn't you once say that the most of my weight went to my breasts?"

Satomi smiled. "Haha! That I did, and you're also the best long jumper in the whole school, there were some areas that I couldn't go too because of a big hole in the floor."

"Well now that we've found each other, do you want to see if we can find a way out of this creepy place?"

"Definitely, and maybe we can find the others too."

Ayame's smile fell slightly. "…About that. While looking for an exit there's something really important that I need to tell you about this school."

"You mean Heavenly Host Elementary?"

Ayame looked at her friend in surprise. "You already know about that?"

Satomi's brown eyes went downcast to the floor as a sad expression came to her face. "Yeah… I saw a flyer on the wall, but this place was demolished a long time ago so how the hell can we even be here to begin with…?"

"That's what I need to talk to you about, but come on, let's leave this room; something about this room in particular… it bothers me."

"Okay." She took Ayame's hand and they left the infirmary.

As the two girl's left the room something else began to form, a looming dark shadow with a blood red aura merely standing in the middle of the room as a slightly smaller shadow seemed to separate itself from the much more menacing one and disappear going off all on its own to wherever it wished.

"_More…"_


	4. Chapter 3 To Meet Only To Lose

Chapter Three: To Meet Only To Lose

"So…" Satomi said as they sat outside of the infirmary. "What that spirit said… about not being able to see anyone else but the ones in this… "Closed Space"… do you think its true Ayame?"

"I don't know." She answered honestly. "But that doesn't mean we should stop looking for the others and give up. Your parents need you, just as much as my family needs me. So let's keep looking for a way out."

She smiled before hugging her friend. "You're so strong Ayame, you're like a battle princess from one of those online games."

Ayame shook her head slowly. "No I'm not, I just push those horrid sights to the back of my mind, I'd rather come up with some sort of escape then to allow myself to be terrified… I was the scared little girl once, and I never want to be like that ever again…"

Satomi's eyes became sad, she knew very well what her friend meant by all that. "I know, and I'll stay with you, no matter what, but… Ayame… if, if I do die, know that it would never be your fault."

Ayame just stared at her, completely in shock. Why would her friend say that? "Please don't say that Satomi, I don't want… to think of that, even if something like that… is possible here…"

"Okay…" she took her friend by the hand and led her down the hall. "Come on, let's keep looking, maybe the front door might be unlocked, but if it is, we at least get a pretty good scope of this place."

"Alright, let's go."

The two walked, heading to the front door, only to stop when a sudden large earthquake hit, the two girl's screamed as they held on to each other for dear life. When it finally stopped they looked to see a slightly large gap in the floor.

"That wasn't there before…"

"Are you okay Satomi?"

"Ah… um yeah, I'm fine, what about you?"

"I'm okay."

Helping each other up Ayame looked to the gap in the floor.

"Do you think you can jump that?" Satomi asked as her friend scanned the hole.

"I think so…" she looked across the gap and saw what looked to be something she could use as a bridged. "Stay here for a second, I think there's something over there that we can use to help you across."

"I'm sorry about that." Satomi said softly. "If I didn't suck at gym class then I'd be able to jump over with you."

Ayame smiled at her. "That's okay, everyone has something that they're not good at, just wait a bit and I'll get some kind of bridged and I might be able to find something to help us."

Satomi's expression changed to slight worry. "Be safe over there okay?"

"I will… but you stay safe too." She took a few steps back and made a running jump over the gap when she landed Satomi called out.

"Hey Ayame I saw it! I saw it!"

"Hmmm?" she looked back to her friend. "Saw what?"

She gave out a laugh. "Heh-heh-heh! You're panties! They're sky blue today with a lace trim too!"

Ayame blushed, her face turning hot. "Satomi!"

"Ha-ha-ha!"

She smiled a bit as she looked down the hallway. _It's hard to believe that I actually missed this… _"I'll be back in a little bit so hang tight and don't move anywhere!"

Satomi sat down on the floor and waited for her friend to get back as she saw Ayame fade into the dark. _Ayame you're such a brave girl… if your brother was here he'd be so very proud of you, but I am too. _She hugged her knees while resting her chin on the top of her knees. "I'll do my best, to keep his promise… but hurry back soon Ayame; I don't want to be left in this creepy place…"

At the other end of the hall the boy with blonde hair stared at Satomi's back before walking over in silent footfalls to stand near her, but without notifying that he was there, he leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his thin chest, his blue eyes narrowed towards the hallway that he came from, there watching from a distance a boy that had a bloody shirt and mouth glaring in return.

"_Cheater…" _the injured ghost muttered and the older blonde boy gave a half smile saying nothing in return so not to give away his location to the school girl that he stood beside.

Ayame walked down the hall, avoiding the smaller holes in the floor and she then came across a board, it looked sturdy enough to use. Picking it up she took the board and placed it underneath her arm and headed back down the hallway when a soft sound was heard, she stopped and turned back, the hallway was too dark to see, but Satomi was waiting, she couldn't leave her waiting. Still what was that crying coming from?

Ayame remained where she stood for a moment; the crying sounded like it was coming from a nearby classroom.

"I'll come back when I get Satomi, I'm sure she'd feel better to know that I got what was needed, I'm sure she's getting worried by now."

Taking the board she headed back to her friend.

"Ayame!" Satomi called from the other end of the gap. "I'm glad you're safe did you find anything?"

"I found this board," she said holding it up. "I also heard some crying too…"

"Did you go alone?"

"No," she shook her head before kneeling down to place the board over the gap. "I didn't I knew that you would get worried so I came back when I got this."

Satomi was hesitant in crossing at first but when she did, she gave a large sigh of relief. "Okay then, let's go find whoever was crying, it might have been someone from our school."

"Alright." When they started to walk Satomi took Ayame's hand, when she looked at her friend with confusion Satomi stated.

"You seemed like you needed to hold on to something, um… sorry if it bothers you…"

Ayame squeezed Satomi's hand, but didn't let go. "No that's fine, I'm thankful for this, but I'm even more thankful that nothing has happened to you…"

They both walked through the halls trying to see if they could find where the sound of all that crying took place, when a faint whimper could be heard coming from one of the classrooms, going in Ayame and Satomi saw to their surprise another female student huddled down in the far left corner of the classroom near the teacher's desk.

"I knew I heard someone."

"I don't know…" Satomi said softly. "She seems… a bit off to me. Maybe I'm looking into it too much…"

"She might just be scared, but let's be cautious about how we talk to her, okay?"

"Yeah…"

They walked slowly further into the room, there a girl with very long light black hair sat on the floor clutching her legs as she muttered softly to herself.

"…he'll come back… he'll come back… nowhere… nowhere is safe… not a single place… even if you were to go outside… you'd die… I'm next… I know I'm next… he said so… he said so himself… I'm next… next…"

"Um… excuse me?" Ayame slowly reached for the girl and placed a hand lightly on her shoulder. It was as she reached she noticed something. _Hmm? This girl's uniform… it's like that of the corpses that I came across when I first woke up…_

"NO!" the girl shrieked and shoved off Ayame's hand before backing herself even further into the corner her arms now wrapped protectively around her body as she yelled. "NO! GET AWAY! WHO ARE YOU?! I DON'T KNOW YOU! LEAVE! STAY! RUNAWAY! PLEASE HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME!"

The two girls were completely stunned at this young woman's actions; it was as if she had gone mad with fear.

Ayame tried to speak to her again. "Um… sorry to startle you like that… I'm Noriko, Ayame Noriko and this friend Haruki, Satomi Haruki, we're from Osamukai Academy class 2-A, may I ask what your name is?"

The girl that was now hyperventilating looked at the two with a fearful gaze as her whole body shook. "I… I… I'm H-hiroko, Anna Hiroko… f-from… Misato M-municipal Brother… Brotherhood H-high… c-class 2-6… nice… nice to meet you…"

This time when Ayame placed her hands on the shaking girl it seemed to relax her a bit. "Hi, Anna-san, can you tell us what happened to you?"

"I… I can't… not-not right now…"

"Are you cold?" Satomi asked. "You're practically vibrating, Ayame maybe you should give her you're coat?"

"Yeah good idea." She began to undo her jacket and placed it over Anna's shoulders. "Can you stand at all? If not then I can carry you."

"I… I'll try…" she tried to stand but only seemed to trip over her own feet. "Ah…!"

"It's okay." Ayame said catching her before then offering her a lift on her back. "Here, get on my back, I can carry you for a bit at least. Perhaps by then you'll be able to walk."

"Okay…" She did and delicately wrapped her arms around Ayame's shoulders. "Thank you… Noriko-san… Haruki-san… thank you…"

Satomi gave a small laugh. "No problem, and besides Ayame is really strong she can jump over these gaps like it's nobody's business." She looked to her friend. "You're big brother would be so proud you know."

Ayame gave a sad smile in return. "Yeah… I know he would…"

Anna looked to Ayame. "You have brother…?"

"And a little sister too! She's soooo cute! If you met her Anna-san you'd so agree with me!"

Anna didn't say anything to Satomi in return; instead she looked back to Ayame and asked. "You… seem sad… did you and your brother… …have a falling out…?"

Ayame shook her head before she made sure that Anna was holding on tightly and that she was supporting the girl before she started walking out of the classroom. "No, nothing like that, I can assure you."

She frowned slightly, the first real expression she showed other than terrorized fear. "What happened to him…?"

Satomi's eyes went down cast, not saying anything in response, neither did Ayame.

"Noriko-san…?"

Her bangs covered her eyes as they plodded forwards. "He died…"

Nanako sat on one of the children's desk trying to figure out where to go, after leaving Ayame in that classroom with those kids she knew for a fact that she had to be dead. There had to be no way in hell for her to get out of there alive. No way at all.

She didn't know why she was even thinking such things at all, when really she should be concerned about Kazumi and Wanaka and Akane. Not that damn bitch, who the hell cared about her anyway?

Well, there was Satomi, but really that girl was such a lesbian, she acted like such a man most of the time she should have just gotten a sex change already.

Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth as she remained where she sat. Maybe she should go and check? So far Nanako hadn't run into any of her friends as of yet, and this whole place was really starting to bug her. getting up off the table Nanako headed out of the classroom, she didn't know why she was even doing this in the first place, but since there literally was nothing to do but walk she thought to might as well go back and check.

A sudden thought came to her head as she left the room. _Who knows… maybe she's already dead… if she is then… the only one who'll be there for Kazumi-kun is me… I really hope you are dead Ayame… then my life would so be better without you… with you gone then I can go on living the good life, so what if you lost you're older brother? Who the hell cares about something as stupid as that? _She walked out of classroom. "…But maybe… if Kasumi-kun didn't notice you the way he did… then maybe you and I could have been… …oh who cares!?" and she then stormed out of the classroom.

At the far back of the room, a black shadowy figure with the blood red aura appeared, soon taking shape but still remained in the shadows, watching from a distance, saying nothing before vanishing again.

Ayame, Satomi and Anna continued down the hallway, each door they tried seemed to be locked from the _inside_. Anna was still on Ayame's back but soon they would have to try and go up the stairs and see if they could find anyone else.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked, softly with concern on her face.

"I am," Ayame said. "But I think I might have to put you down soon though… I hope that's okay?"

"Ayame you have been carrying Anna for a really long time now, we've looked through this whole first floor and haven't found anything, while you've been carrying another person on your back the whole time. You shouldn't push yourself too hard."

"Don't worry I won't."

Anna seemed to be quite for a long time, but then she said. "I'll get down… and you can have your coat back too." When she got down she removed the coat from her shoulders and handed it back to Ayame.

As Ayame put her jacket back on Anna had suddenly let out a terrified scream. Ayame rushed over to the girl and her friend who was already there trying to pull her out of the sudden state of shock.

"Hiroko-san…? Hiroko-san? Anna! Please snap out of it, Hiroko-san!"

But her eyes were strongly fixated on what was at the top of the stairs. Ayame looked up and gasped, there lying on the halfway part of the stairs, was another female student, her uniform was the exact same as Anna's.

Only it was in skeletal form.

_It's… someone from her school… just like the others that I saw… but why are they… skeletons? _"Hiroko-san, we should find another way up to the next floor, it'd before the…"

"NOOOOOOO!" she screamed. "Hitomi-chan! It's Hitomi! It's Hitomi! That cell phone strap there! It's the one I bought for her! Ahhhhhhhh!" she fell to the floor and began to cry as if the world was over.

"There's… something else in her hand." Satomi said noticing a scrap of paper being held along with the phone, Ayame merely nodded and quickly went up the stairs and went to take the piece of paper, but then froze, there was so much blood, it looked to have been done by the same assailant. She noticed the name tag.

Hitomi Kenshin Misato Municipal Brotherhood High class 2-5.

When Ayame came back down Satomi asked. "What does the note say?"

"It's… addressed to Anna…" she looked to her, the girl didn't seem to notice anything at all. "I'm going to read it… it says: He's waiting for you Anna…"

Anna instantly stood up and gripped Ayame's hands extremely tightly, so much so that it almost became painful. "Ah…!"

"WHERE!?" Anna demanded. "WHERE IS HE!?"

"I… uh…"

"Even though what he did… I can forgive him… I can!" her eyes went wide, her pupils shrunk down until they became mere dots. She looked up to Ayame with an obscured disturbingly off putting smile on her face. "I know he'll understand me for running away the way I did! I KNOW HE WILL!"

A sudden cold chill ran down her spine as Anna then forcefully took the piece of paper from Ayame's hands and ran down the hall.

"H-Hiroko-san!?" Ayame was completely baffled by what had just happed.

"Ayame are you okay?" Satomi demanded, completely shocked by what just transpired.

"I'm fine but Anna! We can't just leave her by herself, especially how she's suddenly acting right now!"

Satomi grabbed hold of Ayame's hand and both girl's ran after Anna. "Alright then come on! No time to waste let's get to her before something else…!"

Satomi didn't get the chance to finish what she wanted to say for another earthquake came instantly, shaking the school violently, causing more holes to appear and disappear at the same time, when it finished Satomi then blurted out.

"Oh what the hell!? Why the heck did that decide to happen right when I say something like that? What is this place made of bad karma!?"

"Ow…"

Satomi looked downwards, realizing that she was practically on top of Ayame, one of her hands grabbing her breasts.

"Satomi… you're kind of crushing me… could you get off?"

Her face went beet red before she complied, instantly moving away. "Waaahh! Ayame! I am so, so sorry! Are you okay?"

She sat up and then stood. "Yeah I'm fine, but for now forget about what happened, we need to catch up to Anna!"

They both rushed to where Anna had run off too, only to stop dead in their tracks when they came across another large hole in the floor. "Do you think you can jump this one too?"

Ayame looked at the distance, and then the durability of the floor before shaking her head. "No, some of the floor on the other end look's really unstable, if I were to jump it, I'd probably have the wood break underneath my weight and I'd probably fall to my death…"

"Ugh…" Satomi shuddered. "Okay… forget this route for now, let's see if we can find another way over there, okay?"

"Alright…" Ayame stared across the large hole in silence. _I hope Anna will be okay… Oh that's right! _"Satomi, there was something on one of the classrooms, and I think you might be able to help me, it's on the second floor near where I woke up."

"Uh… yeah sure, any progression is good progression I suppose, especially in a place like this. You said it was the second floor right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then, let's go, we may just find Hiroko-san along the way, or someone else too, so we never know…" she paused and then added. "By the way Ayame, that note, before that girl took it from you, what did the rest say?"

"It said: He'll be waiting in the music room…"

Satomi frowned. "Music room? I don't remember seeing any music room while we were wandering around, do you Ayame?"

She shook her head. "Mmm-mmm, no I don't, but Hiroko-san seemed to know where to look… if we find this music room, we'll find her there…"

"Yeah… I wonder if this person is really waiting for her there…?"

"Come on, let's go. We won't be doing ourselves anything if we keep standing around."

The two headed up the stairs and Ayame showed Satomi the classroom where the moving object was. "Could you stay here Satomi? I'll go to the other end and one of us will probably be able to catch… whatever that thing is…"

"Sure! You go, quick like a duck! Quack! Quack!"

"Uh… right…" she giggled. "Quack!" she quickly left that one side of the room and headed to the other end of the room. _Quick like a duck, Satomi always comes up with the strangest phrases sometimes… but they're still funny though… _

"I got it!" Satomi called to her on the other end.

"Okay! I'll be right back!"

When she reached her friend Satomi showed her what she had grabbed. "Here it turned out to be this."

A key to a classroom, on it the key read Classroom 2-B.

"Classroom 2-B? Hey that's on this floor!"

Satomi grinned. "Awesome! Treasure awaits us behind that door! Let's go!"

They left the classroom but as they looked for the classroom Ayame noticed something about a certain room they walked by.

"Hey… this is…" Ayame pressed her hands up against the glass, the classroom 2-A, and looked in through the door. "This is the classroom I woke up in! I recognize that open door in the back. It's where I had to push that cupboard out of the way."

Satomi's face bleached in color. "What!? You were… in _that _room when you first woke up?"

Ayame didn't understand why her friend was getting so upset for what room she woke up in. "Uh… yeah. Why? Is something the matter?"

"I saw Nanako come out of that room; I asked her if she had seen you at all and she said no, but when I tired go into that room she closed the door and said that there were these creepy little ghost kids in there and that it wouldn't be a good idea to go inside."

"What? But when I woke up there was no one in that classroom with me, and the doors and windows, I couldn't open them at all. I thought I was going to be trapped in there forever."

"Are you saying you couldn't get out? Like the doors were locked?"

"No, not locked, I just couldn't open them." She looked to the door. "Here, watch I'll show you, when I tried to open it, it just wouldn't move."

Ayame reached for the door, and when her hand rested on the handle she moved the door, expecting it to not move at all, only it did, and on the other side of the door was a face that made her gasp in shock. She quickly backed up; Satomi was quickly at her side, catching her before tripping over her own feet. "Ayame what happened?"

"It's… it's Nanako…"

"What?"

Out of the classroom came Nanako Kyou, her bleached blond hair that had been let loose around her shoulder, she looked less then please.

"Oh… Noriko… and Haruki too… hi."

Ayame just stared at her, if what Satomi said was true, did Nanako really choose to leave her to die in the hands of ghosts…?

Around a nearby corner, stood the boy with blond hair and blue eyes, watching the three girls intently, his hand reached up and grabbed his chest.

"_Ayame…"_


	5. Chapter 4 Gathered Together

Chapter Four: Gathered Together

_God damn it all the bitch is still alive…! _Nanako thought as she looked to both girls who seemed to be clearly shocked to see her standing in this room. "What?"

Ayame was the one to speak up first. "Na-nanako… was that room locked or even blocked in some way from the outside by chance?"

"What? No, why?"

"Ah… well…"

Satomi rushed forwards and slapped Nanako as hard as she possibly could. "You bitch!" Satomi snarled. "You straight up lied to me! You said that Ayame wasn't in this room! She just told me that she woke up here!"

"Satomi…!" Ayame gasped in shock at seeing how her dear close friend was reacting in such a violent way.

"You told me that there were kids in that room! You told me that Ayame wasn't there at all! If anything would have happened to her I would...!"

"Satomi stop!" Ayame demanded, tugging her friend away. "Fighting like this is not going to help!"

"Right now I don't care! She could have had you killed!"

"But I'm fine, you've seen me, there's nothing wrong with me okay? So please… just calm down."

Her words seemed to relax her to a bit of degree. "Fine…" she looked to Nanako who was rubbing her now bruised cheek. "But I am going to say this… I don't trust her, at least, not around you…"

"Well I don't trust the ether of you…" she retorted.

"Yeah you only care about your sweet Kazumi-kun…"

"You leave Kazumi-kun out of this!" Nanako shirked.

Satomi rolled her eyes before looking to her friend. "See what I mean? She could care less about us, for all we know, she could get us killed…"

"…_I suggest that when you see that person, avoid that one. That person may just be you're downfall."_

_Did it mean that I should Nanako…?_ The words of the spirit that she had run into echoed in the back of her mind, but there was a question she wanted to ask her, something she meant to ask for a while but could never bring it up when her friends, Wanaka and Akane were around.

"Nanako-san?"

She glared at Ayame. "What?"

"By chance… do you have any idea who might have… put _that _on the chalkboard…?"

Nanako flinched, looking at her with wide eyes. "Are you accusing me or something?" she demanded. "I don't know anything about that at all! Whoever wrote that… it has nothing to do with me!"

Ayame seemed a bit discouraged by her words. _I shouldn't be_ _surprised by this, even if Nanako did know something… I doubt she'd ever tell me… _"Come on," she said. "Let's just keep going, we haven't checked the third floor yet so they're might be something that can help us… or maybe even lead us to the others…"

"Ayame…" but her friend had already headed to the nearest set of stairs and went up them without looking back. Satomi turned glared at Nanako. "You do anything to her, anything at all, and I'll kill you, you understand me? I promised him to keep her safe, and if you try to cause her more pain, then I will end you."

Nanako paled, knowing full well that Satomi wasn't joking with this; she gripped her throat and glared back at her. "Fine then, but keep her away from Kazumi-kun…"

"Do I look like I can control his mind? He likes whoever he wants, you don't decide that." She stated in a matter of fact tone of voice. "But if he was here, and you did anything to Ayame… he'd probably kill you too…"

"Just who the hell are you talking about?!" Nanako demanded again. "Who is this person you keep mentioning over and over again!?"

Satomi just gave her this look in return, as if to say to her: "Just how stupid are you?" but she merely responded with. "Her brother of course, who else would I mean? Ka-zu-mi-kun? Am I right?"

Nanako didn't say anything in return.

"Jesus, you're so obsessed with him, why don't you just tell him how you bloody feel already so he can just dump your ass? God… you know I really don't care what you think, but leave the guy out of it while we at least try to find a way out. You might not even see him anyway…"

"What do you mean by that?"

She gave the girl her back in response. "…no forget it, we should catch up to Ayame and quickly, because who knows…" she looked at Nanako over her shoulder with cold eyes. "…she might run into those children ghosts again… and if she dose let's not leave her behind this time shall we…?"

Ayame reached the middle point of the stairs and let out a huff of breath, tears were forming in her blue eyes but she refused to cry, she needed to conserve what energy she had to keep moving forward.

She looked out the window, there she saw rain constantly falling, and what looked to be nothing but forested woods. There was a thick fog blanketing the ground, but it was too dark for her to see beyond that.

"Mom… Dad… Alice… I hope you're okay… I don't really know how much time has passed here but… I really miss you… I really miss all of you…"

"_Ayame… don't worry they are fine… but they miss you too. So very much."_

_That voice! _Ayame looked up to the top of the stairs and what she saw nearly made her heart stop in shock. "You… you're…" the rest of her words weren't able to come from her throat, there standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at her was the twelve year old boy with blond hair and blue eyes.

"But… it… can't be… I mean you're… how…?"

The boy said nothing he merely watched her before turning and running down the hallway.

"Wait!" Ayame called but the boy was already gone.

"Ayame!" Satomi called to her friend at the bottom of the stairs. "What's wrong?"

"I… I saw…" she shook her head. "No never mind, I think this place is finally getting to me…" _It couldn't be… I must have been seeing things I _must_ have…_

The three girl's walked up to the third floor, Satomi and Ayame in front hand in hand and Nanako glaring in the back.

_How the hell…? _Nanako thought with a frown. _How the hell did she even get out of there… she shouldn't even be alive since I left her with those damn kids! Why didn't they do anything to her?!_

"Nanako…" Ayame's voice drew her from her train of thought. "Is something wrong? Do you not feel well?"

Nanako glanced a way. "I'm fine."

Satomi looked to her friend. "Ayame you look a bit different, you alright?"

"Uh… yeah I just…" she lowered her voice as a blush came to her face. "I just realized that I need to use the bathroom… really badly…" _It's actually a lie… I just can't seem to get that image of that boy out of my head… that boy could he really be… no, don't think that you've done that enough back home so not here!_

"Hmmm? That's it? Then why don't you use a bucket? There are plenty of empty ones out in the hallway; I had to go not that long ago before I found you, and so I used a bucket instead."

Ayame and Nanako both looked at her in completely shock, as if trying to make sure what had been said was correct before Ayame spoke "You… you did what?"

"I peed in the bucket… it's not that hard, a lot easier than I thought actually, it's all in how you squat."

"You know at times I really think you were a man in your past life Satomi…"

"Huh? What makes you say that?"

"…Never mind. But can we at least try to find a bathroom first? If I can't use any then I'll use a bucket, but I'd rather have that as a final option…"

"Oh, okay suit yourself, I'm just thinking that it would be easier is all…"

The bathrooms were on this floor, Satomi first suggested that they should at least check out the boys bathroom, just as a backup in case the girl's one might not be useable.

Ayame knocked on the stalls.

"What are you doing?" Nanako asked with an arched brow. "No one is going to be in there so why even bother knocking, just open the door."

"I'd rather knock first, it's only fair…"

"It's still stupid if you ask me."

"Fine then." Satomi pointed at her. "Next time when you use the toilet we'll just open the door while you're inside, I'm sure you wouldn't be too happy about that now would you?"

"You will not!" Nanako demanded.

"You said she should just open the door."

"Shut up Lesbo!"

"Eat me blonde."

"Guy's come on!" Ayame interrupted they're banter. "Doing that is not going to get us anywhere." She knocked on the last door expecting to not hear anything, but instead she got a knock back.

"Wha…?" Nanako took a step back. "Someone… someone is actually _in _there!?"

"Okay, I can't go in this one…" she turned and headed out of the boys bathroom.

"Wha…? You're… and you're just going to leave it like that? You're not even going to bother looking inside?"

"No, besides, all I heard was a knock."

"Yeah and?"

"Did you see any feet at all? There was a knock but no signs of a person; it's probably another spirit that died here. So let's just leave it be okay?"

Ayame walked out of the bathroom and took a deep breath, she had been only here for what felt like maybe an hour or two and she was already growing accustom to seeing ghosts. _Maybe there really _is _something wrong with me… _she thought as she headed to the girl's bathroom.

"_Naomi!"_

Ayame froze and looked towards the girl's bathroom, there a student in another school uniform stood with her brown hair curled in an interesting way with a cat-like smile over her face as she waved. _"Hi-hi~!"_ she said before rushing off into the girl's bathroom and closing the door behind her.

She rushed over to where the student closed the door, when she tried it; she found that it was locked from the inside. "Um… excuse me?" she knocked on the door.

"_You shouldn't come in here!" _she said in a cheerful voice. _"It'll be bad, especially if you go into the third bathroom stall. So if I unlock this door you must not go in that stall, do you understand? But being here is not important right now; you should find a way out and escape. So go, hurry Naomi!"_

Ayame backed away from the door with a slight frown. "Naomi…? Pardon me, but you have that wrong, my name's not Naomi, its Ayame."

"_I know," _she said. _"You just remind me of a friend. Heeeey~! You think you can do me a big, big favor? See that nametag on the ground near you're feet? Could you take that with you? And if you get out of here I want you to look for Naomi Nakashima, no matter what you _have _to give it to her okay?"_

She looked down and saw the nametag, picking it up she read it.

Seiko Shinohara Kisaragi Academy Class 2-9.

"Ayame?" she turned to see Satomi there with a slight frown. "Something wrong?"

"Ah… no, it's just… the girl's bathroom is locked… I can't get in."

"Did you even _try _to open it?" Nanako asked in a snide tone with her arms folded across her small chest.

"Well if you don't believe me," Ayame said. "Then why not try to open the door yourself and see what happens."

Nanako let out an _Hmph _before walking over to the door. "Watch and learn." She reached the door only to freeze. There peeking out through the window was another ghost, her eyes wide as she stared up at Nanako.

"_You should listen to her…" _the girl in the bathroom whispered softly, eyeing Nanako through the glass window of the bathroom door. Nanako let out a shrike before backing up and falling down.

"There… there's a ghost in there…!" she stammered

"I told you I couldn't open the door…" Ayame said before offering a hand to her. "Can you stand at all?"

Nanako smacked her hand away. "Don't touch me!" she stood and glared at her. "Half-Asian filth… you act so calm and composed as if you've seen shit like this before. Akane was right you really are a freak of nature."

"Nanako!" Satomi was going to say more only to stop when Ayame raised a hand.

"Satomi no, only acting like that will have you sink to her level. Don't answer to that." She faced Nanako with a slight narrowed gaze. "As to why I'm calm I am merely thinking of a way out, keeping a leveled head is best, even if there is death all around us. I intend to try and help you find Takashi-san, but I have no intention in hearing you complain like a spoiled child any longer, you can say what you want and that's fine, but don't be surprised when you get no reaction out of me."

"Dame you Noriko…"

"However." Ayame added. "If you say anything about my brother while we are here, be prepared to see a side of me that you will not like. You've seen it once before, so you should know what I'm talking about."

Nanako stilled, her eyes going wide. "Tsk… whatever, just don't get close to Kazumi-kun…"

"Whatever you say… Nanako-san." She then turned and headed back to the boys bathroom.

_Damn you… Damn you Ayame… I should have killed you when I had the chance…! _"You damned bitch…"

When they reached the boys bathroom Ayame turned to her friend and said. "Satomi could you wait here for a bit I just need to be by myself for a little while."

"A… Are you sure about that? After hearing that knock on that last bathroom stall, doesn't it bother you that something might come out?"

"I doubt it, I think whoever that is would rather be left alone and will not bother me as long as I don't disturb them. So don't worry I'll be fine." When she closed the door she leaned against the wood and let out a breath before opening her eyes. "What am I doing…? Nanako's right… how the hell can I act so calm over this? But it's not the first time ether…"

"Ayame, don't let that girl's words get to you, you are strong, you have to believe in that for yourself. I know you're strong so keep believing in it."

_That voice again! _She turned to look at the far end of the bathroom. Something was there in the darkness, and it began to move closer to her. "Who is it?" she demanded. "Whose there at the other end of the bathroom, tell me right now!"

"Ho…? See, you are brave Ayame, to demand who someone might be whether friend or foe, you have to be strong to do such a thing." The one who spoke came out of the shadows causing Ayame to fall to her knees in shock, her eyes going wide as she stared at the young boy with blond hair and blue eyes.

"It's… it's you… but… how can that be…?"

The boy merely smiled before walking closer to her. "Hello Ayame, it's been a long time hasn't it? But look at you; you've grown up so very fast. You've become into a very capable and beautiful adult. I'm so proud of you."

"Teiyo…?" her hand reached out shakily towards the boy. "Is that really you Teiyo…?"

The boy grasped her hand and held it close to his beating heart. "It's me, I know you must be surprised by all of this, and I'll explain it to you shortly but first we need to get you and your friend…"

"Teiyo!" she moved towards him, tackling the boy to the ground with a hug before crying. "It really is you! Oh god, I never thought I'd see you, I thought you hated me… for what I did! "I'm so sorry Teiyo! I'm so sorry!" she repeated crying into his chest, her hands gripping his back tightly, as if she was terrified to let go of him.

The two were almost completely lying on the floor, Teiyo held them up with his hands braced on the floor to support Ayame's weight. When she finally stopped crying the boy placed a gentle hand on the top of her head and stroked her hair. "You're okay Ayame, you'll be okay, I'll make sure of it. It is my job after all…"

The sound of knocking called her attention. "Ayame?" Satomi called on the other side of the door. "Are you okay in there…?"

She looked back to where the boy was only to see that he was now gone, but what she felt was definitely no illusion, she knew that it wasn't a dream ether. Getting up she headed over to the door and opened it. "Ah-ha-ha-ha… sorry, I didn't mean to worry; I'm fine now, really."

Satomi frowned slightly. "Are you sure? Your eyes look a little bit red…"

"Oh this…? It's uh… my dust allergies, but I'll be okay, come on, let's keep trying to find a way out of here okay?"

"Alright, if you're sure."

"I am." As Satomi and Nanako headed to the stairs Ayame stopped to look back at the open door of the bathroom, saying nothing, thinking that maybe, just maybe, the boy would come out and follow; only no such thing happened. With a deep breath Ayame turned and headed after her friend to continue the search for their friends.


End file.
